Context

Mérimée was born in Paris on 18 September 1803 as the only child
in a cultivated, free-thinking, anglophile family (his father
Léonor Mérimée was taught drawing at the École
polytechnique). The motto he later adopted, Μεμνησο
απιστειν (“Remember to be distrustful”) is revealing: he
preserved a timid and sensitive nature behind an asumed aloofness
and formality. A voracious reader in a range of languages (Greek,
Spanish, English, later Russian), he studied law in Paris
(1819-23). From the age of 20 he mixed with painters and writers in
liberal and Romantic salons, becoming (1822) a friend of Stendhal
(in 1850 he circulated privately a pamphlet, H. B.,
commemorating his personality), and …

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5015Prosper Mérimée1Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.